154-panel Widefield Milky Way Panorama

Subject: Milky Way Widefield

 

Image Size: 11096 x 2979 -- reduced to 12.5% original size

 

Image FOV: 220 degrees by 30 degrees (approx)

Image Scale: 90 arc-second/pixel (approx)

 

Date: 2012/06/15 to 2012/11/18 -- 13 imaging sessions

 

Exposure: 154 panels, each 5 x 5min or 6 x 5 min (25min or 30 min each) Total exposure = 77 hours 50 minutes, ISO1600, f/2.8

Filter: Astronomik CLS

Camera: Hutech-modified Canon T1i/500D

Lens: Contax/Yashica 85mm f/2.8

Mount: Astro-Physics AP900

 

Guiding: ST-402 autoguider through TV-102iis guidescope, Maxim DL autoguiding software

 

 

Processing: Raw conversion and calibration for each panel with ImagesPlus; Aligning and combining with Registar. Preliminary processing of each panel with photoshop-- levels adjustment to make each panel about the same brightness, cropping to 4752x3168 to remove ragged edges from alignment, and 50% reduction to 2376 x 1584. 154 panels combined into a mosaic using AutoPano Pro 2 (Mercator projection, SmartBlend), with 50% reduced output (22192x5957). Final processing with Photoshop -- more levels adjustment, etc., another 50% reduction to 11096 x 2929, conversion to 8-bit mode and JPEG. Total reduction is to 1/8 original size, so 64 original pixels make one pixel in the final image.

 

Remarks:

 

2012/06/15 -- Temp start/end 58F/53F, Relative Humidity start/end 73%/85%, SQM-L start/end 21.45/21.34 (moonrise)

 

2012/06/23 -- Temp start/end 58F/53F, Relative Humidity start/end 75%/78%, SQM-L start/end 21.46/21.13 (dawn)

 

2012/07/24 -- Temp start/---- 62F/----, Relative Humidity start/---- 50%/----, SQM-L start/---- 21.13 (moonset)

 

2012/08/16 -- Temp start/end 63F/56F, Relative Humidity start/end 67%/87%, SQM-L start/end 21.47/21.28

 

2012/08/18 -- Temp start/end 54F46/F, Relative Humidity start/end 83%/95%, SQM-L start/end 21.39/21.39

 

2012/08/21 -- Temp start/end 55F/51F, Relative Humidity start/end 87%/96%, SQM-L start/end 21.40/21.40

 

2012/09/12 -- Temp start/end 58F/49F, Relative Humidity start/end 71%/95%, SQM-L start/end 21.35/21.34

 

2012/09/13 -- Temp start/end 61F/53F, Relative Humidity start/end 58%/95%, SQM-L start/end 21.34/21.36

 

2012/09/15 -- Temp start/end 53F/46F, Relative Humidity start/end 71%/95%, SQM-L start/end 21.02??/21.18

 

2012/09/19 -- Temp start/end 46F/37F, Relative Humidity start/end 71%/96%, SQM-L start/end 21.37/21.39

 

2012/10/12 -- Temp start/end 32F/22F, Relative Humidity start/end 58%/85%, SQM-L start/end 21.02??/21.02??

 

2012/11/08 -- Temp start/end 27F/24F, Relative Humidity start/end 71%/65%, SQM-L start/end 21.21/20.94 (moonrise)

 

2012/11/17 -- Temp start/end 31F/27F, Relative Humidity start/end 71%81/%, SQM-L start/end 21.27/21.44

 

Done